Multiple doctors working on U.S. military bases recently claimed that children as young as 7-years-old can consent to sex-change treatment before demanding that the Department of Defense announce a “gender-affirmative position” on so-called “gender diverse youths.”
In the American Journal of Public Health, the doctors argued that children who show symptoms of gender dysphoria should be given “gender-affirming health care, such as puberty suppression and affirming hormones.”
The doctors wrote that “human rights” dictate such treatment, adding that “youths…have an inherent ability and right to consent to gender-affirming therapy.”
Three of the article’s authors – David A. Klein, Thomas Baxter, and Natasha A. Schvey, PhD – work at Travis Air Force Base in California. Another author, Noelle S. Larson, works at the Department of Pediatrics at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, according to Fox News.
The doctors also wrote that if children do not receive the “necessary care,” they may experience “poor mental health outcomes or suicide.” To the doctors, “necessary care” includes sex-change treatment.
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Notably, the most in-depth study of the long-term effects of sex-change treatment – including hormonal treatment – found that people who undergo “sex reassignment” have “considerably higher risks for mortality, suicidal behaviour, and psychiatric morbidity than the general population.”
When asked by Fox News whether the Department of Defense will provide training on gender medical interventions for minors, as suggested by the doctors, the Pentagon responded, “The Department of Defense will train its health care providers in keeping with current science and best medical evidence.”
Dr. Stanley Goldfarb, board chair for Do No Harm, an organization that works to protect healthcare from political agendas, said the idea that a child can consent to sex-change interventions is “beyond laughable.”
“The existence of a large, perhaps as much as 25% cohort of ‘detransitioners,’ suggests the folly of assuming the soundness of childhood decisions,” he said, later adding, “Just because a child states that they understand the implications of gender transitioning does not mean that they can conceive of their future regrets.”
“These physicians should exam the literature and face the reality that the reason that Finland, Norway, Denmark, and the U.K. have opted to severely restrict the use of puberty blockers and sex-characteristic altering hormones is that we have little if any evidence that we are not hurting more children that we are helping,” Goldfarb said.
